Academia is teeming with learning theories. It can be quite a challenge for the modern learning professional to identify an appropriate learning theory, draw practical ideas from it, and apply it to their daily work. Which theory do you choose? How does it relate to other theories? Behaviourist learning theories focus on external responses elicited by stimuli. .

Recently, I’ve started a new sub-series series: Shots of Theory. This is me gaining more insight into our practice, but I must admit that theory always turns me off a bit. m a practical person; I like to know what works, I don’t want to get too bogged down in the theory and abstractions. Tags: theory kineo instructional design It won’t hurt at all. Did I miss anything?

'The amazing Jane Bozarth (@janebozarth) shared this today and it looks like a great resource if you''re looking to learn more about learning theories. What are the established learning theories With hyperlinks galore, you can drill down to learn about Vygotsky (and possibly even how to say it!), scaffolding, experiential learning and more.

Rather, we have stated this example to prove a point: that observation is an intrinsic human technique to learn unfamiliar tasks or behaviors – something that has been theorized by the psychologist Albert Bandura as what he called the ‘Social Cognitive Theory’. What is Social Cognitive Theory? The Social Cognitive Theory creates an interesting opportunity for observational learning.

don't blame the learning styles believers; I blame those who've filled their minds with confusing and ultimately unhelpful theories dressed up as science. The debate was already red hot before this video by Professor Daniel T Willingham from the University of Virginia (brought to my attention by Stephen Downes ) added fuel to the fire. On the one side are the learning and development romantics, all voodoo and crystals, holding firm to their pseudo-psychological beliefs. You can guess which side I'm on. If learning styles do exist, go on somebody, prove it

This is where Critical Theory steps in. In his thought-provoking paper Critical Theory: Ideology Critique and the Myths of E-Learning , Dr Norm Friesen maintains: “The central argument of critical theory is that all knowledge, even the most scientific or ‘commonsensical,’ is historical and broadly political in nature. Our peers wouldn’t be wrong, right?

The challenge was that current eLearning and learning in general is completely dispersed, and disconnected from a central learning model/framework/theory. Towards a Unified Learning Theory So what did I have in mind with the suggestion that there are multiple models for different types of (e)Learning, yet no one model - or as I had it in my mind: Unified Learning Theory, an analog for the Unified Field Theory , in combination with String Theory , although I must confess that the idea I have in mind is more related to String theory (if a non-physicist can make that assumption).
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In my previous article , I proposed a Taxonomy of Learning Theories to organise a few of the myriad of theories into some semblance of order, and to assist instructional designers in using theory to inform their work. In this article, I go one step further by listing specific, practical instructional design tips that are informed by those theories. hope you find my list useful too – not so much as a checklist to incorporate every theory into your work – but rather to ensure that you have at least considered what they have to offer.
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'Since I’ve begun to flirt with instructional design years ago, I was faced with several theories about how e-learning content should be prepared to assure that the learners get the most out of it. It was really challenging to connect everything I’ve read and found about cognitive theory into one meaningful whole and how to get a quick overview about main principles of multimedia design. Instructional design bite-sized chunking information cognitive theory e-learning instructional design learning map micro lecture Enjoy the following Learning map. and Mayer, E. 2003).
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Recently, I posted about Bandura’s Social learning theory , this posting continues the discussion and relates it specifically to instruction involving avatars. Social Learning Theory. Robert Bandura in the late 1970’s articulated the concept of social learning theory as a method in which individuals learn from one another in the context of a social situation through observation. Social learning theory is based on the premise that observation and imitation by an individual leads to learned behavior. Design virtual immersive environment
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During this week of MobiMOOC (the free, open online course on mobile learing), Geoff Stead from the Tribal lab in Cambridge , UK managed to link 5 mobile learning theories with practical mLearning examples in a 60 minute webinar. theory mobile learning theory mLearning mobile learning mooc mobimoocThe webinar can be viewed here. For me it gave new ideas, new inspirations to gather my own personal thoughts on pasting mLearning factors together and connecting existing projects to one or several of the frameworks mentioned.
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